Marvel’s Runaways: Half season recap/Review

Marvel’s Runaways is a new uperhero outing by Marvel with Hulu. And after watching the first five episodes, we decided to see if it really followed up with its expectations or not.

Episode 1: Works just fine

To be honest, the first fifteen minutes cringed the shit out of me, especially Gert’s character and her forced SJW monologues. And even though the other kids were nice enough, one that clearly stands out as the cuteness overload is Molly Hernandez, a not so hulk super-powered girl.

With the entire first-half being dedicated to introducing all the leads, and they clearly did a bad job at that. However, it can be let slide off for the build-up and those tiny moments like Karolina taking off her bracelet giving the depth and feels I wish for in any series.

Some people criticised the attempted rape scene in the first episode, but compared to the disasters like Game of Thrones, it was pretty well done. More on this one later.

The final reveal worked extremely well as a way to pull in those who stayed with it to the end.

Episode 2: Runaways’ best as of yet

In the most unconventional fashion, Runaways dedicated the entire episode to the evil parents of our heroes. Turns out, the situation is much more complicated than we had imagined. These complications, though clichéd in its own unique way, are pretty well executed.

Their challenges, their conflicts of interests, their inner feuds, all get a centre stage as we move ahead.

Ending the episode precisely where the first one ended was an intelligent choice, and it played with our expectations in a great fashion.

Destiny’s end was harrowing, to say the least, and the reaction that we got from the kids was just as good.

Episode 3: Things come together

And so comes the episode that actually pulls off the main plot to a jump start.

All our kiddos are off doing detective stuff in their own way. But now, we have kiddos storyline and parents storyline. Kiddos see scary truths all over. Gert finds a dinosaur in her basement (It’s a velociraptor btw), Nico finds a strange circle thingy wand that does stuff as she commands to. It was cool. Oh, and Gert finds the mystery box in Chase’s super brilliant daddy’s underground science lab. Did I mention that Gert is also much more bearable now?

In parents’ plot, Nico’s parents are fucked up and are trying to un-fuck themselves but fail greatly at that. Alex’s mom goes off in search of Molly to question her about the hairpin in Alex’s dad’s room which also happens to have a door to where the ceremony was going so it was obvious that *sigh* you get the gist. Things go as expected, Molly lies like a pro and situation calms down. Gert’s parents are planning to screw PRIDE over and hide off somewhere else.

In short, the first two episodes worked as a prologue to the series and the third one as a setup. Perfect collective release for Hulu-like material. The series is yet to find its mojo but is working well in that direction.

Episode 4: Sets up well

Yeah, so, Chase has a big bad fight with guys who tried to rape Carolina Dean, as a consequence, he decides to leave his lacrosse team and meets up with her to tell the truth. Things go better than planned cuz, you know, she’s an alien and all and she decides to show it off and I ain’t gonna lie, that was beautiful as hell. They steal a Pen drive, Nico goes to police station to file a complaint against her parents cuz she thinks that they killed her sister, but realises that they have the Police force in their pocket. Gert and Molly keep getting ever better and Alex steals a gun cuz why the fuck not?

Gert’s parents go out through the city to search for their Velociraptor and plan their life off the grid. Of course, things don’t go as planned and Nico’s mom and the woman who’s always on the high bar of creepiness finds out about it. Gert realises that the Raptor is psychically connected to her and is pretty happy about it.

In the end, they finally realise that their parents are just as fucked up as they thought, just when Alex ISs kidnapped and Chase bonds with his father on his Fistigons. YOOHOO! Carolina is once again sad but okay.

Finally, no one’s questioning their parents’ motives and that’s a good step ahead. Seriously, rainbow coloured Carolina is surely gonna be cosplay goals this year. Raptor is sweet little heatrthrob. The show keeps getting ever better but never as good as it can be.

Episode 5: Too fast, yet too brooding

This one hops through two episodes worth of material in 46 minutes, and though it is obviously not great, at least it does not falter beneath what they’re trying to do.

Girls team comes together to plan Alex’s rescue as Chase continues to bond with his good ol’ daddy by making military level weapons. Y’know, good ol’ stuff?

Meanwhile, surprise bitches! It’s Alex’s daddy’s chaddi friend from episode two’s here to settle the score with his daddy for taking a dig at him in a way he shouldn’t have. The boy has his points and being a Gangsta, he gotta do what he gotta do right? So he calls his millionaire dad for a mil dollar baby in an hour and waits with a small pistol in his hand. Like, dude, he basically made you piss your pants for a 50k last time. You going out and all for a mil now what do you expect? A teddy bear shower? Well, his dad comes with a bigass gun to kill the shit outta them and save his daddy like a man. Does it go well? Nah. Alex boy shoots another kid, giving the PRIDE a free sacrifice fodder.

His ol’ blud pulls up Alex and gives some good advice about not killing people when our badass girl power pulls up and full-on destroys the bad guy. Chase swoops in at the last moments, does badass stuff, stumbles and yay! Kiddos unite!

They soon realise bad shit’s going down so they swoop into Alex’s house, enter the lair and realise that there’s no one in there. Damn then, the kid’s dead? Yup, and guess what? He died to bring back the guy who helped Alex’s dad to reach where he is now today. Also, that guy is probably an alien. By the way, I’ve always wondered over the mystery of Molly destroying stuff and never facing actions…I mean, she destroyed the entire door for crying out loud!

So with Chase’s Fistigons working great, his daddy casually comes up with his time travelling TV and casually throws a remark about him having a brain cancer. And then casually, the camera goes down at the TV in time to show the entire LA falling into shambles. Ayy!!!! Setup out of nowhere!

VERDICT — Now, I’ll be perfectly honest with you. The first fifteen minutes, I honestly wanted to stop watching and go to sleep but as the tale has moved forth, as the facades of the arcs and the characters are falling down, the story keeps getting better and better.

For the casual viewers, Marvel’s Runaways is great! For true comic book series fans, this series beats anything DCCW by a mile. NOT a DC hater here, so shoosh. However, in terms of a quality television, and giving us something to rewatch over and over, this series fails to do that.

Anyone looking for complex antagonists and wonderful kids, this show is just for you. There is a genuine, honest conflict here. And with so many Comic books shows going dark-shit pattern, it is good to have one that does precisely the opposite: giving us things to swoon over and cry over. It gives us a light, yet genuine, over-the-top, yet grounded, idiotic yet complex TV adventure of a kind that everyone is bound to enjoy.

About The Author

I'm just a guy from nowhere with a little too much intrigue for movies, TV series and how they come to be. If it is needed to be known, my favourite TV series is The Man in the High Castle and favourite movie, Atonement.